


Portrait Project

by Geromy



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Nonbinary Character, Pocstuck, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, Twin Crockerberts, Twin Harlenglishes, Twin Lalondes, Twin Striders, University AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:56:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2560478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geromy/pseuds/Geromy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A personalized project assignment from his photography professor has Dave finally meeting the missing mystery twin of none other than his best bro John, only to discover that they may just be the most heavenly human being Dave has ever found himself daydreaming about. They agree to help out with his homework, but surely he can swing this into something more, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Portrait Project

**Author's Note:**

> Very very special thanks to http://cisappointing.tumblr.com/ for offering their assistance in cleaning up the StriLonde dialogue as to prevent me from making a complete ass out of myself.  
> ** Please, if you find anything incorrect or offensive in their dialogue that may have been overlooked, please leave me a comment so I can correct this. **

Every once in awhile, a person came along who, despite being no different than anyone else, managed to light up Dave’s entire world. He had gone through many crushes throughout his 21 years, including as a toddler, believing for sure that he and his twin sibling were going to grow up and get married. Of course when they were three, he still thought they were a cute boy and girl, and all boys and girls who loved each other got married, right? Thankfully by the time he had his weird emotional breakdown that involved him completely trashing the silky pin-straight blonde weave he got for his birthday and taking a razor to his head, he had already long since realized that not all love was the same. He finally came out as male just before he turned 14, with his sibling ditching the whole gender clusterfuck entirely when he turned 17. Dirk didn’t care about being a boy or girl, or anything for that matter. He cared about tinkering with toys and taking apart the microwave and teaching himself how to steal cable. That’s how it had always been. Now it just made a little more sense.

But now, as Dave wandered the college campus through the lense of his camera, the whole process was starting up again.

Dave’s class required that he shoot and develop an entire roll of film every week. He mostly tried to do that by taking artsy low aperture shots of his recording equipment while he worked on projects for his other major. But his professor caught wind of that pretty quickly, and she effectively banned him from turning in any more music related work. This week she had assigned him an entire roll of portraits, which had to have a theme. Being the clever (and lazy) genius he was, he chose the theme of twins, seeing as his entire friend group seemed to consist of them. Four or five shots of each face was actually a decent turn out, too. And much to his surprise, even Jade’s identical twin brother posed on FaceTime from fucking Amsterdam for Dave to take his portrait through it.

He took a few singular shots of Jade holding up the phone, too. He had four extras on the roll after all, and it was kind of a cool concept, in his opinion. Call him a pretentious art student, but Dave loved the theme of modern technology. And there was something about the idea of two twin siblings being able to be right next to each other while standing on different continents that made his heart flutter. That was along with how fascinated he was by the fact that Jade and Jake had the exact same dark face, (occasionally with the exact same stubble that made Dave squeak pleasantly when he saw it) but Jake being the cis guy he was and Jade being the hyper-femme genderqueer princet she was, it was like they were two completely different people just masquerading with masks on as some weird prank.

This project also gave him the opportunity to actually hand in fucking selfies as homework, which was too ironically hilarious to pass up. His photos of Dirk were a bit less staged. Two he was sure were blurry since he took them while hidden behind the door, and two that definitely had Dirk’s middle finger in the frame after he noticed what was going on. Rose was about the same, which was a nice contrast to practical model Roxy with her flawless make-up and perfect tousled bob weave, posing so well he almost wasted one of his remaining shots on her on by accident.

Now he was on his way to finish up the roll, with just enough time to get a contact sheet ready for class tomorrow and pick a few test shots to enlarge. A convenient last stop, since John and Jane were the only two who actually went to the same school as him. He’d gotten John to agree to be involved, as well as his mystery sibling that Dave had yet to meet. Jane seemed to be the type to keep to themselves- they never came to any of their video game parties or bowling nights or pub crawls. If he was honest, Dave had been curious about them for awhile. According to John, Jane had agreed to take on responsibility as the heir to the family business, and as such, they took on a second major in business on top of culinary major they had started their first year. Dave couldn’t imagine the stress that would be, but at the same time, despite never meeting them, he had always, always just felt like if anyone could handle it, it was Jane.

It’s not like double majors were easy. Dave sort of had it easy, seeing as photography and music came pretty naturally to him, but he had heard the horror stories from other students. He and Jane seemed to be the only two people absurd enough to attempt it. Rose stuck with the major and minor route, Jade and Roxy both had their major of choice, (chemist Jade and computer engineer Roxy- pretty predictable, if he was honest) meanwhile Jake skipped college entirely for some European backpacking adventure and Dirk took classes from home because he knew better than to waste time in a classroom when he could work ten times better at his own pace. John was the odd one out. He went to school everyday, took a full course load every semester, but had absolutely no rhyme or reason to any of it. Computer science, astronomy, performance art and drama, gender and women’s studies, fiction writing. He was a beautiful disaster. And he was Dave’s absolute best bro.

And there he was now, flagging Dave down with a wide wave of his arms. Dave pulled the camera away from his face and nodded in acknowledgement, letting the device slump back against his torso while he hoisted his camera bag and made his way over. John and who he could only assume was Jane were seated alone at one of the stone tables outside the library, John with a half eaten scone from the café while Jane was diligently writing in their notebook while the opposite hand traced a finger along lines from their textbook.

“‘Bout time,” John greeted, throwing over a hand for Dave to grab for their usual jocular tug-and-pat. “You’re lucky we’re both on lunch break. Jane would be having an aneurysm if they thought they’d be even remotely late for class, ain’t that right?”

Jane seemed to hum a bit as a response, before they seemingly realized what they were agreeing to and lifted their head from their book long enough to give their brother some stinkeye.

“Well su-i-ma-sen for wanting to do well in school,” they snapped, tongue clumsily rolling a little with their accent. Which now that Dave was hearing it, was significantly thicker than John’s. Weird. “Some of us have a concrete future to be preparing for, instead of spending three years of University goofing off.”

John mockingly muttered with the usual waggling jaw pantomime, before he turned to Dave with an eager grin. “Whatever, it’s time to be a model, right? How did the photos with the others turn out?”

Dave looked at his camera, giving a shrug. “Won’t know ‘til the negatives are ready. I’m feeling pretty optimistic though. I got some kind of cool shots of Jade and Jake I’m pretty hyped about.”

“Oh yeah, you said you were going to just take a picture of the phone while his face was up, right? Must have been tough with the time difference.”

“Nah, it wasn’t too bad. Anyway, I actually want to run to the dark room and get this contact sheet ready so I can pick my shots tonight. Not to rush y’all or nothing.” He felt especially bad for interrupting Jane, who was so diligently into their studies they didn’t even appear to be listening. Their eyes were scrolling across lines of text without pause, and Dave found himself staring at a small curl of hair that was hanging down next to their cheek. Was that on purpose?

“Yeah, yeah!” John answered eagerly, standing up straight. “Do I have to smile all professionally, or what?”

“Nah man, do whatever, do whatever.” Dave grinned a bit as he pulled his camera up to his face, one hand on the lens to manually focus while the other made sure he was on the right shot. Once he was ready he snapped the photo, giving John a chance to get a bit more goofy while he moved to the next frame. “Bruh, if I needed professional I’d be fucked. Dirk and Rose both gave me the finger in all of theirs.”

“College rules,” John answered decidedly, moving a hand up to his chin for some cheesey rich pose. Soon his four shots were up, and they both turned to Jane who finally was sitting away from their books, watching while they quietly sipped at their tea.

“Is it alright if I don’t stand?” They asked shyly, pointedly tugging at their sweater as they sat up straight.

“Yeah, sure. You’re doin’ me the favor here, so I ain’t gonna too get picky with ya’. Beggars can’t be choosers, you feel?”

Jane nodded as their face seemed to flush a bit, mustering up a small smile while they looked at the lens. Dave took the shot, his gaze never leaving their face. It was pleasantly round, with a pinch of a nose and a little cherry chin and Dave’s head was already buzzing a little with a feeling of infatuation. Could he find an excuse to make his entire next project just Jane? Would they agree to that?

“Don’t gotta be too straight with it, you can relax some.”

Jane’s gaze widened a bit as they nodded, adjusting their posture slightly. The size of their smile doubled, and in response, so did Dave’s. He snapped another photo, and Jane let out a bit a laugh. They seemed a bit flustered as they threw up a peace sign, suddenly positively glowing. Dave made sure to pay close attention to his camera’s focus before he finished those two shots. That was too precious of a look for him to risk losing to being blurry.

“Hey, thanks. I’ll show you the shots when I’m finished with them, if you want. We could maybe meet here, same time tomorrow?”

“Yes!” They answered, still a bit excited. They flipped forward in their notebook, tearing off a corner of the page and writing something down on it. After he got it, it turned out to be a phone number. Holy shit. “In case you cannot find me. I’d really love to see your photos.”

“Cool, cool,” Dave answered, pocketing the slip of paper and flashing a quick grin. He was kind of feeling this person. Hardcore. John didn’t even seem to notice, if the way he practically leaned right between them was any indication.

“You better show ‘em to me, too,” he said. Dave lifted a dismissive hand.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” His eyes still hadn’t left Jane’s face, even as they moved right back to their note taking. Unfortunately for him, he did have to get going before the dark room had a class going on. So he tore his gaze away, rubbing a bit at his nose. “Yeah I gotta bounce, but thanks again. I’ll hit you up later, Jane.”

They lifted their head just long enough to nod, humming in affirmation. “Nice to meet you!”

**  
**  


Dave felt at home when he was in the dark room. The smell of the fix, fumbling around in the pitch black to get his film roll situated (always a laugh), even admiring the left behind work of other students while his negatives dried. He loved wasting piece after piece of paper fucking around with contrast and exposure, and he loved the feeling of first holding his page of chopped negatives up to the safelight.

He loved the environment so much he made a makeshift one at home, stacked up trays with his chemicals, a completely blacked out window, and even a safelight that Dirk had thrown together for him. He didn’t risk doing negatives there since there were many more obstacles in his room and on his desk to avoid, but he did use it for enlargements when he didn’t have enough dark room time at school.

When he got home he dropped his bag on the floor, contact sheet in hand as he made his way into the kitchen to pull a bottle of apple juice out of the fridge.

“Hey,” he greeted, Dirk fucking around with something on the living room floor. His face and arms were filthy, but he seemed to have some odd contraption on the go. “Tryna build another boyfriend?”

“Very funny,” Dirk replied flatly, rubbing sweat off his brow with his wrist, which did about nothing for him aside from spread more oil across his face. “There are many better uses to sentient robotic technology than sex.”

“Sure,” Dave agreed, pulling the bottle from his lips and using the same hand to gesture forwards. “I just didn’t think they really applied to you.”

Dirk paused long enough that Dave could tell he had rolled his eyes, and he pushed up to his feet to grab a rag from the couch and wipe off his hands. “How’d your last photos go?

“Good,” Dave answered, admiring his contact sheet full of nerd losers that he loved, especially himself. His prof was going to be so frustratingly impressed with him managing to hand in a selfie as a part of a genuine photo series. He was optimistic about his shots so far, too, even though he hadn’t broken out the loupe yet to look at them closely. “I ain’t never met Jane before, but they probably the cutest person I ever laid eyes on, dude.”

Dirk seemed mildly interested as he wandered over, setting his rag aside. “Let me see.”

“Oh, hell nah, not until you have about 30 showers. I gotta hand in contact sheets, too, and some nasty ass rag ain’t gonna get your hands clean. For real though all that’ll do is spread around the dirt.”

“Then hold it up for me,” Dirk snapped, sucking on his teeth with a threatening and condescending raise in his eyebrows.

“A’ight,” Dave agreed, turning around the contact sheet and showing it. “They’re the last ones.”

Eventually Dirk leaned back with a smirk, moving past Dave to wash his hands in the sink. “Okay, they pretty cute. I feel bad for ‘em though. John’s not quite got the grasp on the whole more than two genders thing.”

Dave found himself momentarily shocked by that, but now that he thought about it, yeah. He never heard John call Jane a she, but he did still slip out “sister” on occasion. And Jane didn’t really seem like the type who would ever speak up about that sort of thing. At least he could trust it wasn’t malicious. Maybe Dave would speak up himself if he noticed it again.

“At least we got Jake to give us hope,” Dirk continued, shaking his hands out before drying them on the exact same greasy rag he was using before. What a disgusting asshole. “That guy literally believes whatever you tell him without question. Teaching him this stuff was child’s play.”

“Yeah,” Dave agreed, grinning fondly at the memory. He remembered some kid trying to bully Jake in junior high by claiming he was a dog and asking Jake to refer to him as Fido, and Jake did it genuinely and without question, with a big smile and encouraging words. Maybe he was too loving for his own good.

Dave moved himself into his bedroom, setting his contact sheet down and turning on his lamp. He set out the chemical trays in preparation for enlarging, giving them a bit of a wiggle to make sure the solutions were still good. Everything seemed to be in order, and he grabbed his loupe and photo marker to start examining each and every frame. Thankfully he didn’t have to cross out many, and he had plenty to choose from for his enlargements. As he reached the end of the page he found himself smiling, seeing how absolutely perfect his photos of Jane were. The way they tilted away just slightly, the angle that their fingers were against their face. The composition was perfect, the lighting was perfect, the focus was perfect. Made John’s photos look like shit.

Eventually he managed to choose one of each face, turning off his main light to get them all enlarged. It was about two hours later he finally had all the contrasts and exposures where he wanted them, pinning all the photos up to dry and throwing himself down in bed. At least that was one less project to worry about. Tomorrow he would hand in all his prints for the critique, show his professor up, then enjoy his weekend.

For now though he pulled his iPhone out of his pocket, opening up his messages and scrolling to one of his favorite names.

> [04:23PM] Me: yo rose what do you know about js sib  
> [04:24PM] Rose: I know four people with names starting with J. You may try being slightly more specific.  
> [04:24PM] Me: aight smarty pants im askin about jane  
> [04:25PM] Rose: Oh? Yes, I’m familiar with them. Do you have a more specific question?  
> [04:25PM] Me: naw just like you know what they like   
> [04:25PM] Me: what theyre into  
> [04:25PM] Me: if they single  
> [04:26PM] Me: the usual   
> [04:28PM] Rose: Jane is a rather shy individual, if I were to describe them simply. Very diligent and hard working. They like old ragtime tunes and white rabbits. I believe they told me the other day their favorite flowers were daisies. And yes, they are very definitely single.  
> [04:29PM] Me: very definitely like im wasting my time or   
> [04:29PM] Rose: I wouldn’t say that.  
>  [04:31PM] Me: oh nice so you think i should ask them out  
>  [04:32PM] Rose: I wish you the best of luck and already have my fingers crossed.  
>  [04:33PM] Rose: Shocked and offended you wouldn’t ask me out, though.  
>  [04:33PM] Me: rose last time you and your sister threw a party you both got so drunk you whipped your dicks out in the middle of the living room to show off that they were the same size  
>  [04:34PM] Me: thats just too intimidating for me to try and live up to  
>  [04:35PM] Rose: Point taken. We’re flawless.  
>  [04:35PM] Me: yall gonna die alone  
>  [04:36PM] Rose: Careful, or I’ll tell that story at your wedding.

Rose really was lucky he loved her so much. She was such a pain in the ass troublemaker most of the time. But she really was precious to him. Her and her undoubtedly more outgoing and laid back sister, who practically mommied him half the time. He was cool with that, though. She helped him bleach his hair and keep the sides of his head trimmed the way he liked it.

**  
**  


As he predicted, the critique went swimmingly. His professor was sufficiently bested, offering him an A on the spot and letting him know there was no need to hand the images in. A couple of his classmates seemed to get lost on the significance of the two middle fingers, which Dave explained to their disappointment, meant nothing. More important than that, though, he was now on his way to meet Jane, a slight spring in his step while his hands wriggled nervously in the pockets of his hoodie. He approached the table from yesterday and there they were, slightly more relaxed today with just a textbook that they seemed to be reading at a much calmer pace.

He didn’t walk up to them quite yet, though. He pulled out his phone first, shooting a message over while he watched them.

> [01:55PM] Me: guess who

Jane looked up as they felt their phone vibrate, pulling it from the left of their bra and peering at it.

> [01:56PM] ジェーン: Someone whom is not my father, I hope?  
>  [01:57PM] Me: that depends on what kind of bedroom rp youre into  
>  [01:57PM] ジェーン: Excuse me?  
>  [01:58PM] Me: yo im just playing look to your 10 oclock

Their head lifted and turned, eventually spotting him with a huge slump of relief. He approached with a grin, expertly sliding into the seat next to them and dropping his bag on the concrete.

“Don’t scare me like that,” they scolded, giving a shake to their head despite the wide smile on their face. They looked down at their book again, hands disappearing between their thighs. “I should have known it was a joke, though. People don’t talk that way about me.”

That comment took Dave aback and he was already prepared to protest, but Jane’s demeanor changed instantly, and they sat up suddenly with an even wider grin. “How did your project go?”

“Amazing,” he answered, turning away to reach into his bag. He pulled out the stack of photos, moving the contact sheet to the top and the photo of Jane to the bottom. Let them discover it gradually. “I got an A, and I think my prof’s done thinking I’m a one trick pony.”

“That’s fantastic!” They replied, accepting the stack of photos with a polite nod of the head. “Is it okay to look?”

“Course,” he insisted, encouraging them with a wave of the hand. “I got no reason to keep them so I figured I give them all back to you guys. If I really need the shots again I still got the negatives.”

Jane’s face was completely lit up as they worked their way through the photos, laughter bubbling out at Dave’s and Dirk’s, and smiling sweetly at the shots of Jade and Jake.

“Roxy looks amazing,” they mused, lingering a bit longer on her’s. Their eyes flashed between Dave and the photo before they paused, letting the pile down for a moment. “All of these are amazing! You’re very talented!”

Dave rubbed his nose as he felt it flushing, running his tongue over his lips. “Yeah… I heard that. Means a lot coming from you though, so thanks.”

Jane seemed hesitant to accept that compliment, but they continued, taking another pause at John’s image to snort, covering the bottom half of their face with one hand. Then they finally flipped it, the last photo. With the bright eyes, the huge smile, the rosey cheeks, the lively animated hair, and most importantly, the perfectly composed tilt that drew the viewer right to their eyes. Exactly how a portrait should be. Jane seemed stunned, so Dave took the reigns.

“That was the best one,” he told them, tapping it a bit with his finger. “Prof loved it, class loved it. I want you to have it, ya know, so if you ever having one of those days where shit ain’t adding up right, you can see from our point of view what you bring to the table.”

Jane sat silent for a good minute, their face speckled with red. Eventually they smiled, holding the photo to their chest while they handed back the rest of them. “Thank you. I am definitely keeping this. That’s probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

“Sure you ain’t just missing the nice words while your face is in your books?” He gestured to the open textbook in front of them. “What’s this one?”

“Pastries,” they answered, lighting up all over again. Jane was transparent with what they were passionate about. It really showed. Dave kind of liked it. “The assignment is to try and create a new pastry, so we have to know the basics of the recipes to know what to add.”

“Inventing recipes? Man, I thought recipes were just something God dropped off one day like some toddler on his first day of school. Like I can’t even cook water.”

Jane giggled into their hand a bit before pulling it away, leaning forward in their seat. “Don’t be silly! Human beings are capable of amazing things! We deserve the credit once in awhile.”

Dave just smiled to show his agreement, staying silent for a moment while Jane seemed to come down from their emotional baking high. He let them read for a little longer, before he scooched in a little closer around the table.

“When are you out of your last class today?” He asked, propping his head up with an elbow against the table. “Any plans tonight?”

“Not really,” they answered, glancing upward a bit while they seemed to think through their schedule. “I’m done at 5:50. A bit of a late day.”

“Well how about I pick you up when you’re done so you don’t have to bus home?” He suggested, moving one of his legs under the other under the table.

“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” they replied, giving a shake to their head.

“You don’t have to, I’m offering. Besides, you can pay me back by letting me take you out for dinner maybe? I mean, if you’d be interested in that.”

That seemed to catch them completely off guard. The look in their eyes when they shot their gaze up at him was unmistakable- absolute disbelief. Their lips quivered a bit as they seemed to be trying to formulate an answer, eventually nibbling a bit on their bottom lip in pause.

“I would really like that,” they finally decided, fingers starting to toy with the corner of their text book’s pages. “Would it be okay that I’m not nicely dressed?”

“Absolutely,” he assured them, sitting back in relief now that the hardest part was over. “We can save the fancy dinner for the second date. Sports bar sounds good for tonight, right? Hell, we can even go to the bar Roxy works at in case you decide I’m a total dud.”

They seemed a bit charmed with that suggestion, glancing up at him bashfully. “I won’t decide that.” No comment about already planning a second date, nice. Nothing but net.

“Then I’ll pick you up in lot six 'round 5:50,” he promised, offering them his hand, which they took and shook with a bow of their head.

“It’s a date!”

Boy was it a date. And he was pumped.

 

Jane was practically dashing to the car when they came out of the building doors, their hands tight to the strap of their shoulder bag. They were slightly out of breath when they climbed into the passenger seat, but their smile was bright and excited, and Dave knew things were positively perfect.

“Hello!” They exclaimed, fingering a little through their hair before pulling down their seatbelt. “I guess I shouldn’t have rushed, I’m all disheveled now.”

Dave laughed a bit as he pulled away from the curb (where he had been illegally parked) and headed off campus, taking the familiar route to the Mad Hatter bar where he spent most of his Saturday nights keeping Roxy company. “It suits you, no worries.”

Jane tried to laugh him off, finally getting their hair where they wanted it. “No one can look good all the time,” they argued, finally seeming to catch their breath. They adjusted their shirt where it had started to ride up a little over their tummy, shimmying back in their seat.

“Good hypothesis, but I’d have to see you in a lot more states than ‘cute while calm’ and ‘cute while excited’ to know that for sure.”

“You’re not seeing me in any states on the first date, Mister,” they scolded, breaking into a giggle soon after. Dave ducked his head a bit in defeat, shrugging his shoulder.

“A’ight, I respect that. I don’t mind waiting three dates or three thousand dates. Long as you’re enjoying yourself it ain’t gonna matter what we doin’.”

That seemed like a more than satisfying response for them, and Dave spent the rest of the drive asking them about class and projects. He got in a few words about his current music project too, which Jane insisted on being allowed to hear soon.

 

Once at the bar Dave led them both to a booth, polite enough to let Jane take the side with the better television view. They watched for a little while between glances at the menu, every so often peering above it to glance at Dave. He always greeted them by sticking his tongue out, to which they would snap back behind it again.

After menus were down they were right back to talking, delving into twin life, coming out stories, the whole nine. Jane seemed a little touched by Dave’s tragic backstory, whereas Jane themselves seemed to still be writing theirs.

“I try not to complain, since John understands,” they mused, stirring their straw around their water while Dave nodded into his beer. “He gets stuff wrong sometimes, but I know he really tries. But the rest of the world is too much pressure, with the publicity surrounding the company’s future. America seems infatuated with me, aside from some rude men who wish I was thinner. But what they know is a perfect Daddy’s girl princess. How do you come out as something to the whole world, when barely any of it believes you really exist?”

God. Ouch. Dave’s head hung a little while he toyed with his bottle, blowing outward in disbelief. That was heavy. Seriously heavy.

“That’s part of the reason I’m so thankful for all of you,” they continued, tapping their fingernails against the table while they nonchalantly reached toward Dave’s half of it. “You see the real me, and I don’t have to pretend. I…”

Dave glanced up when he realized they had gone silent, eyes glossed over as they stared down at their empty appetizer plate.

“You alright?”

They shot over a calm smile, but it seemed vacant. “Yes, I’m fine. I’ll be right back.”

Dave watched a bit worriedly as they wandered away from the table, but he figured it wasn’t his business. If they wanted to share, they would have, right?

Except minutes went by, and they never came back. Their food came, and he waited to eat, glancing around where he could to see if he could spot them in the crowd. After the half an hour mark went by he stood up, and made his way around the corner to scan the bar. It was still pretty empty this early in the day, and there was still no sign of Jane. In mild panic he rushed over, slamming his hands down on the counter to scare Roxy who was turned around behind it.

“OHMIGOSH,” was her usual reply, spinning around with record speed before her body slumped in relief. “How many times do I gotta tell you to quit it with that? Soon I’m gonna start cutting you off before you even make in the front door, ya heard? Don’t test me, son, ‘cause I’ll make sure you wish you were dead.”

Dave couldn’t help but grin a little bit, always enjoying Roxy’s animated attitude. But it was still short lived, worry far out weighing the entertainment value of the situation. “Look, you seen Jane around? I brought them here for dinner but they left like half an hour ago and I ain’t seen ‘em. They left their phone and purse at the table so they gotta still be here.”

Roxy’s lips pursed as one of her eyebrows shot upward, giving Dave a once over with the most unimpressed look. “Boy if you hurt Janey I’m gonna fuck you up something serious.”

“Can you please just help me out? You got surveillance?”

“What do I look like, the boss? Relax and go check the handicapped washroom. Maybe they just needed a crying break. Sheesh. I love you but you need to find yo’ chill, damn. Ain’t like she leavin’ you to sacrifice a goat or somethin’.”

“Thank you,” Dave answered, half throwing himself over the counter to kiss her cheek.

“No street clothes on the bar, you nasty,” she shouted after him, roughly tugging the rag off of her shoulder to wipe off where he had been kneeling.

Dave rounded back the way he had came, filing his way through patrons to get to the bathrooms, leaning up against the door of the single stall and spiritedly knocking.

“Jane, are you in there?”

After a few moments of silence he tried the knob, but the bathroom was definitely locked.

“Look I dunno if you are, but if you are, will you please open the door? I’m sorry if I hurt you, I didn’t mean it.”

It was only a couple more seconds before the door opened and Jane peered out from behind it, their eyes red and slightly puffy.

“Shit, shit, I’m sorry,” he started, but Jane was quick to shake their head.

“It’s not you,” they insisted, quick to lower their head again and fall silent. Eventually Dave managed to ease them back, moving inside the room to close the door on the rest of the bar.

“What’s the matter?” His voice was hushed and he leaned forward a bit to get closer to their height, waiting patiently for whenever they were ready to talk.

“You shouldn’t waste time on me,” they choked, eyes watering again and a hand tucked under their sleeve moving up to catch the tears. “You shouldn’t have to… Explain to everyone you meet why the person you’re dating isn’t a girl. You could find someone smaller and cuter, who never… has to spend some days getting changed in the school’s bathrooms to look more masculine because their father would be so upset. He doesn’t want me wasting my beauty but I never asked for it.” They seemed to struggle with the attempt to inhale, bottom lip quivering. “I may never stop being broken and I don’t want to make you feel responsible for fixing me.”

Dave was speechless. His entire expression seemed weighed down with how upset he suddenly felt, watching as Jane’s face disappeared behind their hands and their shoulders wracked with silent sobs. He’d just met this person and they were already breaking his heart- shattering it. Jane had spent so long with no one but fucking John as a confidante, who probably would never even begin to understand, try as he may.

As Jane started to fall to their knees Dave went right along with them, moving his arms around them and pulling them toward him, anything to keep them off the filthy floor. They didn’t seem to protest at all, aside from pulling their head away just enough to wipe their eyes. “Look at me, it’s already started and we’ve only just met. You can do better than this.”

Dave sighed slightly as he kept his arms around them, resting his head back against the door. “I’m pretty sure everyone could do better than anyone. But they could also do worse. You don’t gotta worry about forcing me to do anything, Jane. I’d be doin’ it cause I want to. I don’t care about tellin’ people you ain’t a girl, I already do that for my sibling all the damn time. You deserve someone who will never hesitate to stand up for you. I am more than good with bein’ that.”

They didn’t respond for the first few minutes, seemingly giving themselves time to calm down from the hysterics. When they did speak their voice was significantly more hushed. “So you can see me walking up with enough baggage for Paris Hilton and you still want to go out with me.”

“I have pretty strong arms,” he insisted, “I think I can handle some heavy bags. ‘Sides, even Paris Hilton would get help from a bell hop. No one should have to struggle with this kinda shit alone.”

“You don’t care that I’m fat or anything,” they asked, their tone flattening out to skepticism. Dave shot out a ‘pssht’, dropping his head to press his nose against their hair.

“You chubby at best, and why would I care? As long as I can get my arms around you, that’s all I need. They don’t even need to go all the way around.”

“Okay.”

He smiled a bit in relief, a short exhale shooting out his nose as he gently stroked their back. “Whenever you’re ready to get up let me know. I think our food’s probably cold but I can probably pull some strings with the bartender.”

Jane nodded as they pulled away, gently rubbing at their nose before moving off of Dave to stand. “Yes, I think she owes me after giving away my hiding spot.”

Dave shrugged as he dusted off his butt, opening the door for them. “I don’t blame ya for coming here. I mean it’s kind of a place where you ain’t expected to be anything you’re not.”

A wide grin crossed Jane’s lips as they looked back at him, shooting him one affirmative nod. “Exactly! I can be me, and I don’t have to explain it to anyone.”

“Well, you can get that from me, too, if you want. I mean, I probably smell a lot better.”

“I may just have to take you up on that.”

****  
  



End file.
